Intelligent Design:Revelations

By J. M. Erickson

Intelligent Design: Revelations is a science fiction novella that looks at the origins of our existence as a species, and our place in the universe. The story begins on the planet Mars during its apex where the balance between technology and nature is achieved. All is well until the Gemini planetoids between Mars and Jupiter fall out of their orbits and are set for a collision course. Master Architect Janus and his peers set forth a plan to not only preserve as much of their culture as possible, but the majority set out to find their Creator. Over six million years later on planet Earth, Lieutenant Colonel David Farrell is baffled by a conspiracy that not only cuts through the US's security as if it were non-existent, but also defies the laws of nature and the rules of science. FEMA Director Roberta Josephine Riesman's period of mourning her soul mate's sudden death is cut short by an assignment that requires her to spy on an old friend. Thrust in the middle of a mystery that involves the greatest natural disaster encountered by humans, Riesman discovers that the very core of human existence is about to be challenged. Earth is not prepared. Reluctantly, she is confronted with a choice – walk away to live in France with the memories of her paramour, or take the challenge to make a difference.

• Language: English
• Publisher: J. M. Erickson
• Release date: Jul 23, 2014
• ISBN: 9780987323163

J. M. Erickson

J.M. Erickson earned his bachelor's degree from Boston College, majoring in psychology and sociology, masters degree from Simmons School of Social Work, and post-graduate certification program in psychological trauma, clinical assessment and treatment from Boston University. He is also a certified clinical trauma professional and cognitive behavioral therapist in a group practice in the Merrimack Valley, and teaches masters level, graduate students in post-trauma assessment & treatment, psychopathology, and neuroscience at a Cambridge College and Salem State University, Massachusetts, USA. To date, all of his novels and novellas series have received awards from various book contests such as Foreword Reviews INDIEFAB Book of the Year and Readers' Favorite International Book Awards & Contest, and all stories have received accolades from such reviewers as Kirkus Review, Self-Publishing Reviews, US Review of Books, Pacific Book Reviews and Independent Book Reviewers.

Book preview

Intelligent Design: Revelations

J.M. Erickson

AIA Publishing

Sixty-five million years ago, Master Architect Janus institutes a plan to insure the human species survival, and Junior Architect Hades attempts to convert a tidal-locked planet, Terra, into a viable planet should Janus fail. But when the Gemini planetoids inexplicably collide, all seems lost.

What Readers Are Saying …

...The book combines intriguing past and current scientific events and theories, conspiracy, high-tech gadgets and a touch of humor, with a cast of unique characters to give you a gratifying reading experience. It is an interesting read and fans of science fiction will love it.  Faridah Nassozi, Readers' Favorite

"Intelligent Design: Revelations is a wonderfully absorbing science fiction novella presenting existential questions that occupy the reader’s mind long after the book has been put down...." Suzanne Owen, Editor

...it is to Erickson's credit that he fulfills the absolute criteria for a proper science fiction novel: i.e. science made into fiction—and that should be very enjoyable to sci-fi purists seeking out this exact kind of work.  Self Publishing Review

Intelligent Design: Revelations

AIA Publishing

ISBN: 978-0-9873231-6-3

Copyright 2014 by J.M. Erickson

Smashwords Edition

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher at [e-mail]

All characters in this book are fictional. Any resemblance to any person living or dead is purely coincidental.

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Cover design by Velvet Wings Designs

Foreword

... At most, terrestrial men fancied there might be other men upon Mars, perhaps inferior to themselves and ready to welcome a missionary enterprise. Yet across the gulf of space, minds that are to our minds as ours are to those of the beasts that perish, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic, regarded this earth with envious eyes, and slowly and surely drew their plans against us. And early in the twentieth century came the great disillusionment ...

H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds

1

ARCADIA PLANITIA, MARS, 63 MILLION YEARS AGO

JUST BEAUTIFUL. UNUSUALLY QUIET, but beautiful nonetheless. Master Architect Janus stood on his balcony, gazing over the miles of well-maintained but desolate homes in his near empty city. The lots, arranged in neat rows, contained two to three-story rectangular homes interspersed with gardens and small farms. The Originators had constructed the planet’s cities to accommodate twenty million inhabitants with privacy and space. The arrangement of well-marked roads, arboretums and gardens made the Martian landscape aesthetically simple and pleasing, well designed in both form and function. Canals laid out in a grid pattern ran throughout the plateau, their order in stark contrast to the irregularity of the occasional rivers that cut across the land. Four-story pyramids glimmered throughout the cityscape. Strategically placed by the waterways, they provided decentralized energy generation via water and solar.

The sun set, plunging the planet into a reddish blue twilight, and birds flew squawking from their nests in search of their evening meal.

Not much food, I fear, for the birds of prey, Janus said. It does sadden me that while we were able to collect the majority of the planet’s species over the past century, we are leaving many behind. He leaned on the balcony railing and took another sip of coffee from his high-grade plastic mug.

Two birds took flight from a rooftop and swooped on a small pack of rodent omnivores that had become more daring in the absence of Martians and other prey. The birds seized one of the smaller rodents, but the rodent pack turned on the attackers. One of the birds barely escaped. The other lifted the struggling rodent into the sky.

That was close. There will be no love lost when that species disappears, Janus thought while watching the rodent pack reorganize and move onto an unsuspecting garden. He turned and took a slow step from the silence of the outside world into his office, where a low but constant flow of computer voices reciting different data streams, observations, and conclusions played over the office intercom just as they had for centuries. No seats surrounded the large empty work tables in the center of the room, but benches lined the surrounding walls along with potted vegetation, bound books, paper star charts, planetary models, and a sea of color-coded tablets. One uneaten plate of food, a bottle of wine, and an empty glass sat on a bench amongst analytical equipment and paper-bound records.

Janus sauntered over to the bottle of wine and poured himself another drink. Ah, Keeper, once again it is you and me, a handful of other stubborn old scientists, soldiers and the old left, he said just loud enough to be heard above the computer voices. It is sad that after a millennium of preparation, I still wonder if we did everything we could to preserve life in this quiet corner of the galaxy.

He closed his layered work robes over his tall, thin frame and, with a full glass in hand, walked around his office, listening to the planet’s master computer running billions of computations on the planet, colonies, and the solar event poised to happen at any moment. The master computer’s female baritone stood out from the other computer tones as unmistakably in charge of the entire artificial intelligence of the planet.

Master Architect Janus, I wish you would reconsider evacuating with the others. Both the Venus Keeper and the junior Architect of Earth request you join them. Your demise here is not necessary and it ... it pains me that you will not leave when you could live, the Keeper said in its resonant, feminine voice.

Hmm ... the beginning of emotion? Maybe she will survive and even reach sapience, he thought as he reviewed the number of cryogenic stasis chambers below. Though he had made his decision to stay long ago, he nodded as if he were actually considering it.

No. I have no offspring, no spouse and no relatives. I have been in this workspace for two hundred years and in the field for another hundred years. I took over for Master Architect Lucius, who took over for Master Architect Guiana. They were of this world just as you are, Keeper. I cannot leave this world any more than you can. And besides, are there not cryogenic stasis chambers well below the surface? He sipped his wine.

Experimental. The liquid bonding and temperature only preserved the last subject for thirty-two thousand annual rotations, the master computer said.

Only thirty-two thousand rotations? That’s quite a bit of time. Experimental? What are your metrics for success? A billion annual rotations? Your demand for perfection surpasses even my predecessors, and we know how Architect Lucius was.

Yes ... Master Architect Lucius was demanding, critical and often correct even when his ideas were unconventional and far from the norm, but I digress. Please, Master Architect Janus, a ship awaits you to leave at any moment. I can report on the final days and moments here should they come as expected. The ship is designed for long range, long term cryogenic sleep. You can join the others who left long ago to find the Originators. She spoke with more emotion than he expected.

Persistent, and single-minded ... Impressive. No, Keeper. Enough of this unresolvable discussion. When the time comes, I will, with the others, retreat to the chambers for safekeeping. He walked towards the balcony, his mind racing again as thoughts of things to do and check on flowed through his head.

By the way, he said, I’m curious that with all my planning and efforts to salvage this solar system, why did you take it upon yourself to attempt to terraform Terra along with Junior Architect Hades? Why would you move ahead with such an unlikely plan on that tidal-locked planet, closer to hell than hope? If I did not know better, I would have guessed that Architect Lucius was still milling around here, or that he left a hidden program. He gazed out the balcony window and sipped his wine, hoping that his efforts to distract the master computer worked. The computer background voices and the quiet dialogue of internal programs on the intercom comforted rather than distracted him after all their years together. Yet, ironically, his one voice easily distracted his longtime master computer, colleague and friend.

While primary efforts to relocate the majority of our indigenous species to Venus while we transform Terra are running well ahead of schedule, Earth’s indigenous life has made it difficult to relocate the excess there. The massive warm-blooded omnivores have made havoc of our efforts, and the air quality still needs work, though minimal. Effort to transform Terra is low on the list but necessary should Earth not be a viable place for the excess overflow from Venus ... the Keeper said.

Janus interrupted her. So you allowed Architect Hades to create a warehouse on a planetary scale. Based on the manifests of terraform equipment and fission producers, there is more than enough power to simply heat a contained environment along the terminal line rather than create a habitable world. Am I right?

Yes. But Junior Architect Hades is young and ambitious. He did, in fact, keep your ideas as a backup plan should things go awry. However, like many his age, he prefers to dream big and take risks.

And he took the rodents and their favorite mushrooms to Terra? Was this part of an experiment or does he have a fondness for fanged, long-scaled, tailed omnivores and fungi? He watched the rodents methodically ravage the unattended garden.

Architect Hades has taken a number of species, animal and vegetable, to see which species could exist underground in harsh conditions and darkness. He believes he can orchestrate an ecosystem where he can create a source of food, the omnivorous rodents, for higher order species should the proposed food chains collapse, such as a planetary disruption to food transports, supplies and commerce.

Smart for sure but dangerous—the fungi and rodents will multiply and live anywhere. He would be better served to focus on transforming and let those species die out. Janus found it difficult to conceal his natural dislike for both species. He cringed at the thought of needing to eat either one if necessary. I suppose there’s also a good reason why Hades collected every large scale holographic emitter on our planet? Does he have any idea how the public would’ve responded if they were here to witness this act? They are difficult to construct and more difficult to move. I suppose I should be grateful he left mine alone.

Architect Hades is convinced that with a continuous supply of energy the holographic emitters will bend light just beyond our visual range.

Janus calculated the creativity required and the probability of success in converting holographic emitters from projecting light particles to bending them and pushing them to either end of the light spectrum. After a moment, he chuckled.

Once again, creative. He would need to utilize a power source as great as the terraform equipment, but he could do it. Risky, but he could cloak physical objects on a planetary scale, especially with Terra’s dark side of ice as a reflector. Provided he doesn’t blow up the the planet. Very risky.

Yes.

But why he would want to do this? Because he can? Was I that foolish when I was young?

Speaking of taking risks, please remind Architect Iris to slow down her titration of the Venetian atmosphere. I am concerned she’s moving too quickly and could inadvertently create a runaway greenhouse effect. That would be bad. He stood, taking in the sight of his Martian home, and thought of something else to convey to Iris, about another young ambitious Junior Architect.

She has been warned repeatedly on this matter ... Wait. Wait. Architect Janus, please look ... Janus heard the Keeper speak, but the sky already drew his attention. A brilliant light filled the Martian twilight and, as it faded, a few lights flickered on in the empty cityscape—the homes of those citizens who had decided to stay. Janus took a deep breath, and his shoulders and the top of his back relaxed as if they’d been waiting for this moment, this catastrophic, extinction-level event.

I take it the planets Gemini Alpha and Beta finally collided. I expected it to happen next month, thought their gravity wells might survive this pass. How their orbits became suddenly destabilized in the first place is beyond me, just as it was to my predecessors. Janus calmly continued to watch the light fade and the sky return to its darkening reddish blue tint.

Not all the predecessors. Master Architect Guiana believed that it was ’the will and hand of the Originators,’ though she lacked scientific support, the